80 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
the Comber casuals—put forward a connected argument such as 
Mr. Colgan (Journ, Bot. 1894, 104) introduced in connection with 
Prof. Areschoug’s plea in favour of Artemisia Stelleriana, then indeed 
the claim of Glyceria festuceformis to native rank would be seriously 
imperilled. But at present the facts seem to point the other way. 
t is the very absence of any working hypothesis such as Canon 
Lett endeavours to set up, coupled with the mode of occurrence of 
the plant in relation to its environment, that has cause 
believe that it is native. The working out of its distribution in the 
North of Ireland will probably throw light on the question. It will 
afford me much gratification if Canon Lett will help in this. 
R. Liuoyp PRAEGER. 
THE LATE REV. W. H. PURCHAS. 
(Wir Portrait.) 
himself to religious work. He was the originator of, and for some 
years a diligent teacher in, the Sunday School at Ross, and Secretary 
to the Church Missionary Society. In the autumn of 1855 he pro- 
ceeded to Durham University, and, having passed through the course, 
he was, on December 20th, 1857, ordained to the ministry of the 
Church of England, in the service of which he laboured unremit- 
tingly to the day of his death. The fields of his work were— 
Tickenhall, in South Derbyshire, 1857 to 1865; Lydney, Gloucester- 
shire, 1865; Gloucester, 1866 to 1870; Alstonfield, North Stafford- 
shire, 1870 to 1908. Here he died on December 16th, 19038. 
From early boyhood his tastes had lain in the direction of Natural 
History. Entomology first attracted him, and while still a boy he 
made a very fair collection of butterflies; but botany was also an 
early pursuit; his elders used to complain that it was impossible to 
w:.tk with William Purchas, he was so continually stopping to 
examine the things growing in the hedges. The taste for botanical 
study grew with his years. In the winter of 1851-2 he, in con- 
junction with the late M. J. Scobie, R. M. Lingwood, and a 
thers, founded the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club, which has 
since done so much to make known the scientific and archeologit 
treasures of Herefordshire. At that period he had already a wide 
knowledge both of general British botany and of that of his native 
county, and was in touch with the leading British botanists. His 
botanical work in Herefordshire was very thorough; he mapped out 
the county into fourteen districts, and, having got round him an 
